Billionaire booster Red McCombs is well connected with the Longhorn program, but insists he does not know who the school will select as its next head coach. Still, McCombs does have a recommendation.

“They should hire Jon Gruden,” McCombs said to the San Antonio Express-News. “I think he’s the best football coach out there. And he’s available.”

McCombs has donated over $100 million to the school, and the university’s business school is named after him. He’s is one of the most influential figures in Austin, and carries a lot of weight within the program. McCombs says he has called Texas president Bill Powers, asking him, and other boosters, to consider Gruden.

Gruden, currently a color commentator on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, last coached from 2002-’08 as the head man of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2002, he led Tampa Bay to a victory in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

McCombs says he has had no contact with Gruden. But the 50-year-old former coach has been linked to the job in reports.

Before Texas’ Alamo Bowl loss to Oregon, Longhorn athletic director Steve Patterson indicated he wanted to hire a head coach by Jan. 15. Baylor head coach Art Briles, Louisville’s Charlie Strong, Vanderbilt’s James Franklin and Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher are also said to be on Patterson’s short list.

No matter who Texas targets, McCombs says the school won’t have trouble hiring a great coach.

“It’s the best coaching job in America,” McCombs said. “I don’t see how they can miss. They can get anyone they want. They can close their eyes and go ‘eeny-meeny-miny-moe’ and end up with someone good.”

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